WoW from a Vanilla player's perspective.

I see a lot of people complaining about how bad the community is now in WoW and how the good old days are gone forever. It really gets at me to see this. Let me start off by explaining a little bit about my gaming history in WoW so you can understand I have a good grasp on this. I've been playing a rogue for 8 years, never straying from the class. On top of that I have all 8 of those years on the same server. My character has 720 days played. I've been active through every expansion and have only taken very few breaks. With this I can assure you all the game has always been the same, and so has the community.

People have always been assholes in /2, content was never harder then it currently is, and the game has not been as dumbed down as you lead yourself on to believe. I'm probably writing this up right now due to the Old WoW vs. New WoW argument going on in /2 by people who have no idea what the game was even like back then. Vanilla was a fresh MMO experience that I played and raided as a young teen, and so I have memories of it in the mindset of a mere child. At that age your way of thinking is much different then it is now as I play the game in my twenties. The fond memories I have have a completely different feel then the new ones I have created in Cata, but that is not because the game has changed, only my mind and way of thinking has. As a teenager I took pride and joy acting and thinking like a child, participating in trolling and camping people who couldn't defend themselves on my rogue. I loved playing for hours and hours and participated in MUCH forum drama because that is what teenagers do.

People nowadays blame the game for their own growth and changes in outlook towards the game. I still remember killing illidan and waiting MONTHS for new content, that is not something new in any sense. Yet people complain about content release dates and lack thereof all the time. The worst is players thinking the community is so much worst off then it was. The truth is it's exactly the same as it has always been, the only thing different is your view on the way people are and how you react to it. Truth be told I have always loved WoW, I still have people asking me where I got this and that mount/title and asking me for help with "insert random old world thing". I think the older generation of players (say those who started in Vanilla or BC) are not letting themselves understand that although the game HAS evolved and been updated to reflect the ease of access market it is still nearly no different then it was before. The bickering of these players allows other immature players who are newer to the game jump on the bandwagon and promote an idea that is falsified from the beginning. It is not my intention to say Wrath or Cata starting players aren't allowed to have an opinion, but only to make notion that they often times over extend themselves and use the arguments of older players who haven't gotten a grip on their own new perspective in the game. It's funny to see most of these complaining players continue to re-sub though.

These are just my thoughts on why it appears there is so much QQ (that has always been there anyways lol) still going on about how good the game use to be, and how much it isn't now. Thoughts?

I generally agree with the idea that gaming as a whole changes completely as you grow up. For me, this change came in the form of not looking to explore and do non-important things like it. I used play Banjo Twooie for HOURS a day, 90% of which was walking around killing random things having no idea where to go or what I was doing. I enjoyed the crap out of that. I recently bought the game on xbox live, and upon 30 mins of getting lost and not really having any form of direction, I uninstalled the game. As for MMO's, rather than when I was a noob in WoW and it was "holy crap I'm an orc and theres this huge world", I find myself thinking when I create either an alt in WoW or a char in new MMOs like SWTOR or GW2 "what class preforms best in end game PvE/PvP, and how much content of said fields is there". Its become all about physical content rather than the self created content of exploration and the such.

Now obv I'm not saying this is the case for everyone, I know plenty who love to explore games and/or RP (which I get soooo bored of now, even in IRL D&D). But from what I can see theres been some kind of jump over the past 10 years in what a gamer is and what they want out of a game. You could blame it on "casuals" and the millions who play games deemed "shit" by the internet overlords such as CoD, but as a long time RPG lover, something is changing, and really it sucks.

That being said, I dont ever want to see Vanilla servers, nor BC servers, nor WotLK. What I would pay 1,000,000,000 Internet dollars for would be to become a noob to video games (in particular MMO's), because thats when I had the most fun playing games.

Last edited by Gharld; 2012-08-18 at 01:42 AM.

Make a level 1 human on the US server Moonguard and run over to the Goldshire Inn. Once there prepare to be blown away by a series of WTFBBQ's and complete and total spacial mindfuck. Do. It. Now.

I see a lot of people complaining about how bad the community is now in WoW and how the good old days are gone forever. It really gets at me to see this. Let me start off by explaining a little bit about my gaming history in WoW so you can understand I have a good grasp on this. I've been playing a rogue for 8 years, never straying from the class. On top of that I have all 8 of those years on the same server. My character has 720 days played. I've been active through every expansion and have only taken very few breaks. With this I can assure you all the game has always been the same, and so has the community.

People have always been assholes in /2, content was never harder then it currently is, and the game has not been as dumbed down as you lead yourself on to believe. I'm probably writing this up right now due to the Old WoW vs. New WoW argument going on in /2 by people who have no idea what the game was even like back then. Vanilla was a fresh MMO experience that I played and raided as a young teen, and so I have memories of it in the mindset of a mere child. At that age your way of thinking is much different then it is now as I play the game in my twenties. The fond memories I have have a completely different feel then the new ones I have created in Cata, but that is not because the game has changed, only my mind and way of thinking has. As a teenager I took pride and joy acting and thinking like a child, participating in trolling and camping people who couldn't defend themselves on my rogue. I loved playing for hours and hours and participated in MUCH forum drama because that is what teenagers do.

People nowadays blame the game for their own growth and changes in outlook towards the game. I still remember killing illidan and waiting MONTHS for new content, that is not something new in any sense. Yet people complain about content release dates and lack thereof all the time. The worst is players thinking the community is so much worst off then it was. The truth is it's exactly the same as it has always been, the only thing different is your view on the way people are and how you react to it. Truth be told I have always loved WoW, I still have people asking me where I got this and that mount/title and asking me for help with "insert random old world thing". I think the older generation of players (say those who started in Vanilla or BC) are not letting themselves understand that although the game HAS evolved and been updated to reflect the ease of access market it is still nearly no different then it was before. The bickering of these players allows other immature players who are newer to the game jump on the bandwagon and promote an idea that is falsified from the beginning. It is not my intention to say Wrath or Cata starting players aren't allowed to have an opinion, but only to make notion that they often times over extend themselves and use the arguments of older players who haven't gotten a grip on their own new perspective in the game. It's funny to see most of these complaining players continue to re-sub though.

These are just my thoughts on why it appears there is so much QQ (that has always been there anyways lol) still going on about how good the game use to be, and how much it isn't now. Thoughts?

What server are you?

How far did you raid in Vanilla?

I don't know about you but on Tich in vanilla the community was WAY better.

At leased back in vanilla people who were idiots were black listed on the server because you couldn't just name change or xfer when u wanted.

As for raiding, I don't care what you say raiding in vanilla was a lot harder. BWL,AQ40 and Naxx esp Naxx were not a joke. Normal and hard mode were not separated like they are now. You went to raid and it was ALL hard mode. Only a hand full of guild in Vanilla ever got passed AQ40 and even less to actually get through Naxx.

The game has not been dumbed down? Did you even play vanilla? Sorry but i could not go to a vendor and get free tier loot for just running 5 mans. I could not run LFR and AFK for free loot. I could not AFK bgs without being black listed by the entire server.

I'm starting to think you're lying and never actually played Vanilla at all.

Wow has gotten more difficult in some ways the only 2 mechanics, I miss from vanilla are hunters extra range and the old vanish. Vanilla was worse not a lot of specs were viable. Pvp wasn't about skill u could do everything, you could in vanilla plus some now.

You're right except for 2 things.

1. My name is spelt "God" not "Loucious-sama".
2. I'm not a man, because man is inherently flawed. I am in fact a being so far beyond your comprehension that archaic constraints like flesh, blood, time and consequently, gender, have no meaning to me.

I don't know about you but on Tich in vanilla the community was WAY better.

At leased back in vanilla people who were idiots were black listed on the server because you couldn't just name change or xfer when u wanted.

As for raiding, I don't care what you say raiding in vanilla was a lot harder. BWL,AQ40 and Naxx esp Naxx were not a joke. Normal and hard mode were not separated like they are now. You went to raid and it was ALL hard mode. Only a hand full of guild in Vanilla ever got passed AQ40 and even less to actually get through Naxx.

The game has not been dumbed down? Did you even play vanilla? Sorry but i could not go to a vendor and get free tier loot for just running 5 mans. I could not run LFR and AFK for free loot. I could not AFK bgs without being black listed by the entire server.

I'm starting to think you're lying and never actually played Vanilla at all.

US-Mannoroth - First server to open AQ gates so I know what I'm talking about, I'm not from some crap backwater server full of carebears.

I downed Rag in Vanilla.

It still doesn't take long for someone to get blacklisted on a server so your point is moot.

The stats prove Hrag in Firelands was one of the hardest fights ever put into the game. So again you talk out of your butt lol.

You can't get Teir loot from vendors doing 5 mans, they require tokens to this very day.

You are trying to tell me I'm a liar, but you make argumentative points that make zero sense.

If you are going to poll, then at least make the choices understandable.

1. Worst then it was.
2. Still the same old.
3. Better then it was.

I have no idea what "Worst then it was" is supposed to mean. Is this even English? I can understand that "then" is probably "than", but the phrase "Worst then it was" makes zero sense--when you are comparing something using "than", how on earth does one use "worst" instead of "worse". Did you mean "Worse than it was"?

If you are going to poll, then at least make the choices understandable.

1. Worst then it was.
2. Still the same old.
3. Better then it was.

I have no idea what "Worst then it was" is supposed to mean. Is this even English? I can understand that "then" is probably "than", but the phrase "Worst then it was" makes zero sense--when you are comparing something using "than", how on earth does one use "worst" instead of "worse". Did you mean "Worse than it was"?

It was all about the social aspect of the game. It doesn't really matter how hard the encounters were in Vanilla. It was fun because of the atmosphere and the feeling of being in a real "world" of Warcraft. People had different priorities back then. Everyone was friends with everyone. Blizzard improved many technical aspects of the game but somehow at the same time they ruined that special "feel" of WoW. It's still a very good game but it's simply different than it was originally.

WoW will always have a special place in my gaming memory - in a small space with other games such as M.U.L.E., Archon, System Shock 1+2, Doom 1+2, Quake, Warcraft I and II, Starcraft, Diablo I and probably some game I have missed.

Having said that - the game has become worse. It is technically superior today but it lost its soul in the process. All the group finding tools and the accessible content have - potentially in a counter intuitive way - broken the entire social and discovery aspects of the game.

some people will just never be happy, they will complain they don`t have something, then they will find something to complain about when they get what they asked for. they will never be happy, they will never stop whining.

the way people thought back then, the way things were done, is also not as different as you yourself might think.

As for raiding, I don't care what you say raiding in vanilla was a lot harder. BWL,AQ40 and Naxx esp Naxx were not a joke. Normal and hard mode were not separated like they are now. You went to raid and it was ALL hard mode. Only a hand full of guild in Vanilla ever got passed AQ40 and even less to actually get through Naxx.

Vanilla raiding had easy fights with easy mechanics. Naxx wasn't hard, getting people geared up for Naxx just took a long time. Same with AQ40 and BWL. You think any of those fights could come close to the complexity of current fights like Heroic Rag/Nef/Sinestra? Even Warmaster was a more intricate fight than any in Naxx. The reason so few did it was because the length of time required to gear up and the lack of information about the fights. Youtube wasn't flooded with videos on how to kill Kel'thuzad.

If you deny that fights have become more complicated since Vanilla WoW you are fooling yourself.

People nowadays blame the game for their own growth and changes in outlook towards the game.

This right here is the heart of the whole "WoW was better way back when" argument. It's not the game's fault that after this many years you're not a starstruck newbie any more.

Looking at it objectively, the game is better now in pretty much every way. More balanced, better battle mechanics, better boss mechanics, more quality of life changes than I can count, etc. Sure, not everyone likes every change, but in general the game has only gotten better over time. You personally may not enjoy the game as much now, but that's not because the game itself got worse. Your opinion of it has just changed.

Also, most of the "[insert time period here] was better" arguments are incredibly nostalgia based. People tend to complain that [thing I liked] is gone, while forgetting that 100 [thing I hated] went away with it. I don't know about you, but I'm happy to leave things like strength leather and 5 minute blessings in the past.

The only real issue I'd have with current WoW is that content is too accessible now. It has a huge impact on the community.

Well yes, it lets more than 1% actually see it for starters. Huge impact isn't a negative impact :P

And I say that, and vote that it's improved, as someone who raided in vanilla and cleared all content then and in tbc pre nerfs. I am technically the one percent and still know these arguments about accesibility are stupid. Someone else having nice things shouldn't diminish your happiness in any way, if it does there's an issue with how you're getting your happiness, not with the other people for enjoying themselves.

Raiding isn't as much fun and the world is dead. I feel sorry for WoW players who didn't experience Azeroth when it was just 1-60 and there were loads of players running around, when you could get 200 people fighting in Tarren Mill for no particular reason.

But the questing is much better, the default UI is much better, there is more random stuff to do (for a new player at least), the servers aren't down half the time etc. Evens out really.

edit: The difference between killing Illidan and waiting for new content is only a few thousand guilds killed Illidan when it was the top raid, compared to everybody being able to kill Madness on LFR now. So instead of 100k players waiting for new raids you have 10 million waiting for new raids.